Sadly, leaving difficult things to the last minute is an all too common human failing. That's fine when it comes to filing a tax return or Christmas shopping - unlike making sure the world's largest economy doesn't fall off the edge of a metaphorical cliff, neither will have any impact on millions of Americans' financial well-being. And with 13 months to come up with a solution, the fact US lawmakers could only achieve half a deal at the twelfth hour - let alone the eleventh - suggests more reckless procrastination than clever brinkmanship.
What's more, while the hefty tax rises and spending cuts that many feared would tip the US back into recession were avoided (for now), the latest Federal fiasco has also highlighted that without massively accommodating fiscal (and, of course, monetary) policy, the US is fundamentally in just as bad a shape as we are in Europe. America's most troubling problems - the twin spectres of a $16tr national debt and a $1tr budget deficit - remain unresolved. Markets may have reacted well to the latest twist on Capitol Hill, but the US can't spend its way out of recession for ever, a subject that will be at the centre of further unsettling wrangling when the issue of spending cuts comes back to the table in the coming months.
That's why here at the IC we believe less in trying to second guess political machinations and their impact on markets than in trying to identify quality companies that you should hang on to through thick and thin. It's a first principle we bear firmly in mind when selecting our tips each week, and of course our 2013 tips of the year, which will be live on the website on Friday 4th January.
And as fast-growing wealth manager Towry noted in one of the more realistic assessments of what to expect in the market in 2013 to hit my inbox, after two years in which political news flow and central banks have driven asset prices, this year could see a welcome return to fundamentals. That would mean happy hunting for stock pickers and short sellers alike.
We've also got some initiatives coming up that should help you take advantage of such a shift, not least the launch of new iPad edition of the magazine later this month. And in answer to the teaser that Alistair Blair set in his final No Free Lunch column, the answer is £106,000 - meaning an annual 1.5 per cent charge would have knocked more than a third from your returns over 40 years. So if there's one resolution worth following, it should be to cut out expensive middle men wherever possible. Happy New Year!
